The 2014 Corvette Stingray has a lot of holes in it, and that’s a good thing.
Vents, to be precise, and extractors. Also vertical slots behind the front wheels called coves.
It’s all very high-tech, and each one has a purpose. Some, several.
The ones in the hood and fenders, for instance, allow air to travel through the body to reduce aerodynamic lift while directing engine heat up and over the car rather than under it, where it just causes trouble.
Meanwhile, the vents on top of the rear fenders direct air into the vehicle to feed cooling systems for the transmission fluid and electronic limited slip differential, which then exits through openings built into the brake light housings.
But the most unique hole on the ‘Vette is hidden, which is a shame, because it is possibly the coolest feature on the car.
The Active Hatch Vent is hidden behind the Corvette’s rear fascia and features electronically-controlled louvers that open when you lift the hatch. It turns out that the hatch is so large that it acts like a spinnaker sail, catching a huge amount of air and creating a lot of resistance when you try to shut it. Instead, the vent relieves that air pressure to reduce effort, closing again only after the hatch is latched.
Although it seems like a complex solution to a problem that a little muscle could solve, the extra engineering effort involved is an indication the attention to detail put into the rest of the car.
We’ll find out if it all works as well as advertised when the seventh-generation Corvette hits the road later this year.
Read: This is the worst thing about the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray